My kinship with the natural world began early in life. I would spend countless hours on the banks of our farm creek, fascinated by the abundance of creatures. This special connection to water continues to this day. The streams flowing into the Columbia River are some of my favorite subjects.
I work in watercolor, applying layers of transparent pigment to build up the desired color intensity. I obtain my source materials for paintings by bringing along a digital camera while on a field study outing. The painting is planned and completed in my studio. The result is a watercolor through the eyes of a naturalist.
Because of my keen interest in complex details, several artists have influenced my style. They are Patricia Tobacoo Forester (American watercolorist), Joseph Raffael (American contemporary realist), and Gustav Klimt (Austrian symbolist painter). Other areas of study have also impacted my design sense: a jewelry class focusing on cloisonne' techniques, and years of working in batik, a wax-resist dying process used to create patterns in fabric.
